News
Department of Biomedical Engineering

Steven Day, head and professor in Biomedical Engineering, receives an award to develop a silicon membrane device for newborns that will treat life-threatening lung problems.  The device aims to reduce problems associated with current devices to minimize bleeding and clotting risks.

Three new engineering doctoral degree programs at RIT were approved by the New York State Department of Education and are focused on using multidisciplinary approaches to solving today’s global challenges.

Steven Day, a professor in Biomedical Engineering, received 337K from the National Institutes of Health, in collaboration with Drexel University to research ventricular assist devices (VADs) for high-risk pediatric patients in outpatient settings.  

Researchers at RIT and the University of Rochester discovered an alternative to successfully purify biological particles to better understand how cells communicate with one another.

Maria Romero-Creel ’17 (biomedical engineering) and Wendy Salamone ’10 (biotechnology) are just two of the people responsible for the analyzer database update launched by Ortho Clinical Diagnostics on April 14. The team is responsible for ensuring that calibrations, precision fluid information and analyzer settings for new assays like COVID-19 are properly entered and working for analyzers in the field.

Ke Du and Blanca Lapizco-Encinas, both faculty-researchers in RIT’s Kate Gleason College of Engineering, worked with an international team to collaborate on the design of a next-generation miniature lab device that uses magnetic nano-beads to isolate minute bacterial particles that cause diseases. This new technology improves how clinicians isolate drug-resistant strains of bacterial infections and difficult-to-detect micro-particles such as those making up Ebola and coronaviruses.

Saler, a miniature donkey, received new, 3D-printed shoes this past weekend at Karen and Bob Pinkney’s Wychmere Farms in Ontario, N.Y.  RIT biomedical engineering students were among the unlikely team brought together to help the 9-month-old little donkey whose tendons did not develop properly in his front legs.

Biomedical engineering students Brandon Buscaglia and Marcus D’Aguiar are helping physicians see the invisible. The undergraduates developed a motorized stage and tracking prototype that works in conjunction with digital microscopes. The students’ ideas are being incorporated into a company’s tech offerings today, providing the potential to make an impact in health care applications tomorrow.

Ridding waterways of microplastics, delivering water to remote villages experiencing drought, and better ways to remove salt from water were just a few of the clean-water research projects recently presented by undergraduate students as part of RIT’s Grand Challenge Scholars program.

Blanca Lapizco-Encinas, professor of biomedical engineering in RIT’s Kate Gleason College of Engineering, was named a Fellow in the inaugural cohort of the I Aspire Leadership Academy. This leadership program aims to help STEM faculty from underrepresented backgrounds attain leadership roles at colleges and universities.

Engineers today must be able to manage technical aspects of projects but also work effectively in a diverse, multi-cultural workplace. RIT is preparing its engineering graduates for those growing demands and was recognized by the American Society of Engineering Education as part of its national commitment to improve diversity within university engineering programs.

Faculty and student researchers at RIT, and physicians from the Rochester Regional Health System (RRHS), developed a non-invasive process using infrared imaging to better detect cancerous tumors.